2 Broke Girls, S4E4 “And the Old Bike Yarn”: A TV Review

I’m not going to lie to you [and honestly, I don’t think I never have in these reviews], but this episode was as shaky as Max’s first attempts to ride a bike for the first time ever. Luckily for you, and for me, if I’m being honest, I can see the silver thread of yarn in every horrific knitted street art installation. With those very appropriate references aside I actually think this marks a positive turn towards giving the secondary cast a little more of the spotlight.

Max and Caroline’s plot revolves around the latter trying to teach the former how to ride a bike, and like I said in the first sentence it is rough. Running with the idea that deliveries will help them add an additional surcharge to their $5 cupcakes [already pretty steep, if you ask me], Ms. Channing steals a bike from out front and puts her plan in action. It’s when she realizes that she is sweating-enough-to-smell-like-Greek-food-out-of-shape that she realizes she needs to instruct Max in an important life skill. Regardless of how I chose to describe it, it’s far from riveting stuff.

Running parallel to all of this is Oleg’s struggle with erectile dysfunction, which led to a few euphemisms I actually hadn’t heard before and managed to keep my attention. While his and Sophie’s relationship has taken more of centre stage in earlier seasons having it actually be about an actual problem [however you want to describe a situation involving the fry cook’s penis] really helped it stand out. Along with all of that Matthew Moy gets to really ham it up as his character
takes a little too much joy in lording it over his employees. Earl has a decent line, but it’s really Han’s time to shine this week.

The difficulty that the writers’ room faces with each and every episode [and I’ve probably mentioned this before] is trying to give the rest of the diner gang stories of their own while still keeping Max and Caroline as the focus. Really, any sort of plot that involves Han or Earl or Sophie or Oleg must be viewed by either one. As far as I can recall there are no scenes that involve any of these characters without at least one member of the titular duo, and it’s severely limiting. Having Oleg’s new catchphrase be “it’s over my head” in response to euphemisms for not being able to get it up is immensely entertaining, but just imagine how much better it would be if he said it to more than just Caroline-

To actually break down what happened with the bike, and really there wasn’t much there, it would probably be good to spend a few words on Max’s hesitancy to tame the dreaded bicycle. While she certainly faults her mother when it comes to her not knowing how to ride one, we actually veer away from last week’s subject matter and get to hear a story about a kid who can now french kiss through his cheek [legitimately surprised they didn’t make that joke]. It’s a fairly grisly throwaway tale, but it helps build on the fact that Max did do things as a child that didn’t involve her hanging out with a prostitute named Tiny Marge.

Lastly, add serial yarn-bomber/street artist Guinevere to our list of kooky characters. Between you and me, I think that anyone who can do this is actually pretty cool:

Current Total: $2,285.

New Total: $2,735. I guess those delivery fees really paid off.

The Title Refers To: If there’s some kind of play on words here I’ve totally missed it. My assumption is that the “bike yarn” is Max’s story about Tommy Doonan.

Stray Observations:

• whoreoscope [hawr–uh-skohp] noun : a newspaper feature where you can find out if you’ll still be a whore in the future.
• Han Wins #1: “I’ll tell you what’s in your future: using my name as a reference at Chipotle!”
• “You think i picked up a paper that said you will be a 75-year-old cashier?”
• Business affirmations are important, like: “Please, God, don’t let us get pistol-whipped in here.”
• yarn bombing [yahrn bahm-ing] verb : a whimsical, new, stupid activity.
• “I am beautifying the city one living glorious work of art at a time!”
• “You like delivs? It’s an abbrev I made up for deliveries. You like abbrev? It’s an abb I made up for abbreviation.”
• “Intimacy is so hard for some guys it’s not hard for some guys.”
• “Good luck getting your penne all dente.”
• Caroline’s Bike Horror Movie Titles: Bike of the Living Dead, Texas Bike Chain Massacre
• Han Wins #2: “Hi, Max! I’m just riding my bike to the bike store to buy more bikes!”
• “Were you able to do the thing, you know, the man does while the woman makes shopping lists in her head?”
• Han Wins #3: “If anyone needs me I’ll be outside riding my bike, with an erection!“
• “Oh hell no, she yarn-bombed our darn barn!”
• Maybe It’s Maxoline and 2 Broke Girls Cheesecake Menu: not much for either of these features this week. Sorry.